Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016

• Killing Shots
• Mendo Health
• Missing Shroomer
• Demonstration Coverage
• Yesterday's Catch
• Fidel Castro
• Standing Horse
• Nader Fable
• Little Dog
• Doctor Visits
• Troop Support
• Inspector Calls
• Off Color
• Weed & Guns
• Wisconsin Recount
• Benefit Concert
• Meet Richard
• Federal Monies

"THE VICTIM WAS BLACK. The shooter was white. After the first shot the victim dropped to his knees and held up his hands. The fatal shots were then fired." — AVA source

LAST MONDAY at  11:20am, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Dispatch began receiving calls of a “shooting in the area” of the 200 block of East Perkins Street, Ukiah, about a half-mile from the County Courthouse.

ONE OF THE EMERGENCY calls was placed by Steven Ryan, 62. Ryan said he’d just shot someone in self-defense.

OFFICERS from the Ukiah Police Department and the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department and emergency services people were soon on-scene at 220  East Perkins where they found 20-year-old De'Shaun Davis dead of gun shot wounds, plural, in the driveway.

THE PROPERTY belongs to a local vineyard and contains several rental houses and apartments. Ryan lives in one of the units, most of which are occupied by immigrant Mexican families.

RYAN was soon placed under arrest after telling detectives that he'd gotten into an argument with Davis who Ryan had discovered rummaging through a trash bin and had ordered off the property.  Ryan said Davis had approached him in a menacing fashion when he shot Davis in self-defense with a large caliber handgun.

DETECTIVES quickly concluded that the shooting did not seem to “meet the criteria” for a “justified or self-defense” shooting.

RYAN was arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on an open charge of murder. His bail was set at $500,000. An autopsy will determine the number of shots fired into Davis.

BRUCE McEWEN WRITES: "Murder suspect Steven Ryan was arraigned Wednesday morning in Judge David Nelson’s court on Murder One with a Special Allegation that he discharged a Springfield Arms XD .45 in the 220 block of East Perkins Street, killing Deshawn Christopher Davis, 20, on November 21st at around 11:20 a.m.

MR. RYAN said he was on a military pension.  Public Defender Linda Thompson was appointed as Ryan's interim attorney. Ms. Thompson was given a copy of the complaint and asked Judge Nelson to put the matter over until December 1st at 9:00am for further arraignment and entry of plea, perhaps to allow time for Mr. Ryan to arrange his finances so that he can find another attorney.

BAIL was increased to $1 million by Judge Nelson. After speaking with Ryan, Thompson said she would argue for a bail reduction on Dec. 1st as well.

PUBLIC DEFENDER THOMPSON then conferred with Veteran Outreach Legal Representative Will Van Zant, and Ryan was escorted back to the county jail.

THE AVA'S Ukiah Bureau is only a few blocks away from the scene of this shooting, and I clearly heard the shots. Strange though it may seem, I often hear shots fired in and around the downtown area. Sure, I could be mistaken as to some of the loud pops, but I’ve been around guns all my life and even did a stint as Editor of Guns Magazine.

I'M PRETTY SURE I heard three-four, maybe five .45 ACP rounds fired in rapid (semi-auto) succession at about the same time and coming from the same location as indicated in the police press release.

IT'S NOT the first time I’ve heard killing shots fired in Mendocino County. I was at the Hospitality House when a man was shot dead a few blocks away in Fort Bragg — a story you may recall that gained nationwide publicity and even made Oprah’s show.

AS TO this guy’s story, we’ll have to wait for his trial to get it all; he has a right to a prelim within 10 days of his arraignment — Dec. 1st — but defense lawyers don’t always show their hand at that time, unless there’s enough evidence to get the charges dropped.

* * *

A UKIAH READER WRITES: The victim of Monday's shooting on the East Perkins St. vineyard property near Ukiah was a young black man named DeShaun Christopher Davis. Steven Ryan, age 62, who lived in a rental house on the property, claimed self defense but was arrested on first degree murder charges. Davis, age 20, was apparently "dumpster diving" when he was accosted by Ryan who ordered him off the property. Preliminary reports indicate that the shooter and the victim were walking towards each other when Mr. Ryan opened fire. Investigating officers concluded that the shooting did not meet the criteria for a legitamate claim of self defense. Ryan, who said he is retired on a military pension, is being held on $1 million dollars bail and is due back in court on December 1st for arraignment. Ryan is being represented by Public Defender Linda Thompson which means his chances of prevailing in court or reaching a favorable plea bargain are almost nonexistent. Was the shooting racially motivated? Without getting inside the shooter's head, it is almost impossible to say. There are a half dozen or so houses on the property that once served as farmworker housing but are now used as rental housing. Ryan is believed to be the only non-Hispanic resident, which seems to be an indicator that he is not overtly prejudiced. But were words exchanged that pushed Ryan over the edge? If so, as one on-line commenter suggested, it may have been a "mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore" situation. But did Ryan reasonably fear for his life when he pulled the trigger? If not, he will likely have a long time to think about it. Especially with Thompson as his defense attorney.

* * *

Legal Background on Self-Defense:

https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/07/22/5-things-to-know-about-stand-your-ground-in-california/

ON NOVEMBER 14 the Board of Supervisors received a mental health a report on the mental-health services transition from Yuba-City-based Ortner Management Group to Ukiah-based Redwood Quality Management.

As usual whenever the subject is mental health services, several important issues were danced around without getting to the heart of the matter. One has to assume that nobody really wants to know what’s going on. Instead all we get is lots of psycho babble terminology mixed with cozy semi-coded insider talk which dances around the problems in a way that makes sure nothing is actually dealt with.

Supervisor Dan Hamburg: “Just looking at the second page of the data dashboard I just noticed that we seem to be using the Santa Rosa facility a lot more. Is that true? OMG less? Is that just something that's trending? Because of Santa Rosa? Or we like the service better? Or what?

Camille Schrader, President of Redwood Quality Management: “We don't have a contract with the North Valley Hospital. We are unable to have a contract with North Valley Hospital.”

Hamburg: “Why is that?”

Schraeder: “Because the North Valley Hospital does not want to have a contract with us.”

Hamburg: “Okay.”

Schraeder: So we have [illegible]. Which is in Redding.”

Hamburg: “But it looks like we are using that and Aurora quite a bit.”

Schraeder: Right. Aurora is a Medi-Cal certified site which in the age range they are in Santa Rosa, less than an hour away, we can get family members there, we can get our team. We have a very close working relationship with Aurora. For a wide variety. If they do not have Medi-Cal, — there are age ranges that don't qualify and therefore can't get to Aurora. We try to find the biggest, the closest available hospital. But those are our two primary resources.”

* * *

The reference to "North Valley" is the name of the Ortner facility in Yuba-City. Ortner is apparently refusing Mendocino County’s business now. And the board does not seem interested in why. Presumably, it's because Mr. Ortner is still smarting from the county having terminated their contract with Ortner and petulantly will not even contract for conventional hospitalization services even at their premium $800 per day rate.

HAVING GOT NOWHERE with that one, it was on to the County’s continuing failure to find housing for mental patients.

Hamburg: “I was wondering if perhaps Director Chandler could talk a little bit about the RCHDC [Rurual Communities Housing Development Commission] opportunity. Is there any update on that?

County Health and Human Services Director Tammi Moss-Chandler: “There's actually going to be an update at this next coming Behavioral Health Advisory Board meeting on Wednesday. We are looking forward to coming back to your board in the next two months concerning several aspects of housing including the RCHDC project. There's certainly been a lot of discussion and strategy around this. We are trying to look at that. Long-term, the opportunity to expand the housing stock in Mendocino County along with some of the short-term housing needs that we are experiencing in the mental health transition and come back to you with a comprehensive report in the next couple of months of those housing needs. If that answers your question.”

It didn’t, of course, but that’s the norm, so Hamburg applied a layer of blather.

Hamburg: “Yes. I just don't want that opportunity to get by us. RCHDC seems very committed to it. We have talked about this outside this meeting. There do seem to be some opportunities out there to secure property and these grants come and go but this is a big one as you well know.”

Moss-Chandler: “I think there is a nice opportunity for us to come back to your board in two months in order to leverage the next round of tax incentives at the state level later in the spring so that coming back two years to your board with those next steps in the next couple of months for the next opportunity.”

* * *

The “opportunities” had suddenly and conveniently morphed from housing and housing sites to more meetings.

The reference to RCHDC is another missed opportunity that no one would come out and speak to directly. A few months ago the board heard a presentation from the RCHDC director about their attempts to find a location for a modest mental health residential facility using a $1 million housing grant. But the presentation that they gave to the city councils made it sound like it they were asking for housing for bums, transients and street people, not mental patients, and the board complained about the presentation and told the housing group to revise their presentation and run it by the Board first. But obviously nothing came of it and no “opportunities” were uncovered. Mendo has no comprehensive system of finding and developing housing of any kind and has not had one for decades as their Housing Element fiasco proved years ago. (Mendo designated a few acres for “affordable housing” which wasn’t even zoned for housing, then when they were sued over it, they realized that they couldn’t rezone those commercial properties because they didn’t have adequate sewer and water. They eventually forced a re-zone on a Ukiah vineyard owner on the outskirts of the sewer district, but that owner has no intention of any housing development. And that was for ordinary housing, not mental patient housing…) These grants come and go and lots of helpers pretend like they're working real hard on finding something but nothing is ever found, nothing is ever built, no progress is ever made and now Ms. Chandler is reduced to congratulating herself on finding opportunities for more meetings, since there are no housing opportunities anywhere in Mendo’s feeble capacity.

SUPERVISOR GJERDE tried to bring up an important point: “When was the last time that mental health funding was audited by the state and how would a member of the public get a copy of that audit?”

Moss-Chandler evaded this question too: “We have a couple of different audits. Our mental health funding I think Ms. Miller [mental health director] knows. We may have to follow up and bring it back. We have certain pots of money that are audited through Medi-Cal. We also have our Mental Health Services Act which is a different auditing process. We also just recently had our EQRO of our clinical services which touches on mostly our clinical services. So we are actually working closely with the Behavioral Health Advisory Board with a comprehensive review of the mental health services and I hope to provide that during your joint meeting with the Mental Health Advisory Board in December that it's currently anticipated for December 20 that we would have a comprehensive report. As to the audit reports, we could actually make those available at any time, I don't know if you have seen that.”

Gjerde: “Yes I have. I just request that it go online so when the public asks they don't just ask us, they can go online and see that.”

Moss-Chandler: “Yes definitely. To be clear from the Behavioral Health Advisory Board certainly the EQRO audits are very transparently provided.”

Gjerde: “Where are they provided?

Miller: “They are under behavioral health. If you go under behavioral health website and you go to mental health under quality assurance improvement page, if you go to that page all of our audits are listed under the tri-annual Department of Mental Health Services tri-annual report and all our reports are listed there.”

Gjerde: “So obviously they are looking back, so are the reports still looking back at when Ortner was here?”

Moss-Chandler: “That is correct. Right now for our Department of Health Care Services clinical audits, they are in real time. Fiscal audits are actually on a five-year look back over that range.”

* * *

Supervisor Gjerde’s initial question about the mental health financial audit was never directly answered. The "clinical audits" (EQROs) are nothing more than the usual rubber stamps. What Gjerde was obviously getting at was how much the County is liable for during the three years of Ortner’s inadequate mental health services which the County may not be reimbursed for. But for reasons that remain unclear, Gjerde didn't press the point. No one said where those five year audits are or when they will be posted or whether Ortner’s bills qualify for reimbursement. In fact, these audits will never be online nor will they be explained or reported on. No one knows how much liability the County has regarding Ortner’s three years of unsupervised, failed service, and nobody will worry about it again until a multimillion dollar bill appears at the supervisors’ doorstep in a year or two. And everyone will pretend to be shocked.

IF THE SUPERVISORS and staff can't speak clearly about the mental health situation, they certainly can’t expect it to improve.

After lots of self-congratulatory baffle-gab about cooperation and understanding and challenges and coming together and how amazing and great everyone is and so forth — and we assume Redwood Quality Management is doing a somewhat better job than Ortner even though Ortner set the bar so low that practically anything would be better than Ortner — they can't get direct answers to direct questions. And the Supervisors won’t push for direct answers because their hard-earned reputations as Nice People would be jeopardized.

Pathetic. Truly pathetic.

PS. For an interesting, readable, and extensive overview of the mental health situation in the Redding area (clearly similar to Mendo and other rural areas), the Redding Record Searchlight’s Alayna Shulman has published a comprehensive description of the problems they’re having — mostly having to do with staffing — and what they’re doing to get along (sort of) without it.

http://www.redding.com/news/local/limited-care-available-for-mental-health-patients-in-rural-shasta-county-ep-1249866629-353339241.html

http://www.redding.com/news/local/untreated-severe-mental-illness-at-root-of-other-problems-ep-1358278156-353237211.html

— Mark Scaramella

MISSING PERSON

Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office press release: On the evening of 11/23/2016 the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office received a call of a missing mushroom picker in the area of 7.6 mile marker on Branscomb Road, between Highway 1 and Branscomb.  Deputies were advised that missing person, Mary Dow, went mushroom picking with a nephew that afternoon but did not return to the vehicle as scheduled in the late afternoon.   Apparently the nephew and Dow voluntarily separated around 3:30 PM, as they looked for mushrooms in the thick timber off of Branscomb Road. The missing person was last seen wearing blue jeans, a gray hooded sweatshirt, and hiking boots. The missing person is described as being 58 years of age with reddish gray hair.  She is reported to be approximately 4‘10” tall and weighing approximately 115 pounds.  The missing person recently had a surgical procedure that may render her unable to speak.  The public is encouraged to approach her if they think they may have seen her as she may not be able to call out for help. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team searched the area on Thanksgiving but were unable to locate her.  Today (11/25/2016) mutual aid resources from Lake, Marin, Contra Costa, Napa, and San Mateo Counties have responded as well as search dogs from the California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA).
 Anyone with information on this missing person case is encouraged to call Mendocino Count Sheriff’s Dispatch at (707) 463-4086.

MORE LIKE HONEST REPORTING

To the Editor:

Yellow Journalism: a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandalmongering or sensationalism. By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion.

* * *

Justine Frederiksen, senior reporter for the Ukiah Daily Journal, is not intellectually up to the task reporting on national political topics such as the "Fuck Donald Trump" demonstration at the courthouse by a group of mostly Latino high school students who, fearing deportation, expressed the exact right sentiment last week in Ukiah.

She engaged in yellow journalism in an egregious manner by focusing on and posting the 30-second snippet on Facebook — neglecting to mention the almost two hours of peaceful protest — of the students "swarming" the pickup truck whose passengers gave the protesters the finger. She neglected to interview the students properly to fully understand what their fears were, to sense their legitimate anxiety and the need to release it in a free society, and did not back up her story with any well researched information (or any information at all) about Trump and what his policy will mean to the students and their families.

(This Facebook post apparently stirred up extended controversy causing such comments as "scum" and "this is the reason why we need guns.") As to the claim that these students should be a little more courteous, I am wondering about the benefit of courtesy when Hitler's armies rolled down the streets killing anyone in their path.

Oh pretty please, Donald, don't deport us and don't lock us up and don't instill the racist bastards to beat up the Jews, LGBT members, African-Americans and anyone else of the wrong color or shape.

FUCK DONALD TRUMP.

If this is the kind of coverage we can expect from the Ukiah Daily Journal, God help us.

Frederiksen owes the community an apology and needs to stick to her reporting on accidents and City Council events.

Respectfully submitted, Amber Benton, Ukiah

ED NOTE: Chanting Fuck Donald Trump and menacing people who flip you off is hardly the way to garner sympathy for one's position on anything. The Ukiah High School demonstrators came off as a gang of thugs and stupeedos.

CATCH OF THE DAY, November 25, 2016

GARY FITZGERALD, Arcata/Ukiah. Murder.*

DAVID FUENTES, Willits. Domestic battery.

DAKOTA HENNIGAN, Willits. Metal knuckles.

BRANDON LAWSON, Willits. Under influence, probation revocation.

AARON MICHAEL, Albion. Failure to appear.

JUSTIN PARFET, Arcata. Failure to appear.

NOE PEREZ, Ukiah. Court order violation.

DAYNA REYNOLDS, Covelo. DUI causing injury.

WILLIAM RYAN, Ukiah. Grand theft.

MARTIN TUCKER, Ukiah. Under influence, controlled substance.

CHRISTOPHER WEST, Ukiah. Under influence. (Booking photo not available.)

DONALD WILLETT JR., Willits. Failure to appear.

*Gary ‘Giggles’ Fitzgerald is one of the “trimmigrants” involved in the Friday, Nov. 11 murder of Laytonville pot grower Jeffrey Settler. A booking photo was not yet posted as of late Friday night. (More to come.)

FIDEL CASTRO

Fidel Castro, Cuba’s revolutionary leader, dies aged 90

The comandante overthrew Batista, established a communist state and survived countless American assassination attempts.

by Rory Carroll

Fidel Castro has died at the age of 90, Cuban state television announced on Saturday, ending an era for the country and Latin America.

The revolutionary icon, one of the world’s best-known and most controversial leaders, survived countless US assassination attempts and premature obituaries, but in the end proved mortal after suffering a long battle with illness.

The announcement was long expected, given the former president’s age and health problems, but when it came it was still a shock: the comandante– a figurehead for armed struggle across the developing world – was no more. It was news that friends and foes had long dreaded and yearned for respectively.

The Communist party and state apparatus has prepared for this moment since July 2006 when Castro underwent emergency intestinal surgery and ceded power to his brother, Raúl, who remains in charge.

Fidel wrote occasional columns for the party paper, Granma, and made very occasional public appearances – most recently at the 2016 Communist party congress – but otherwise remained invisible.

Confirmation of his death will trigger celebrations in Miami, the centre of Cuba’s exile community, and mourning among leftwing admirers around the world. For many Cubans on the island who grew up in his shadow, simultaneously respecting and resenting him, it will be a moment of profound ambivalence.

One thing all could agree on was that this extraordinary figure left his mark on history.

More than half a century ago, his guerrilla army of “bearded ones” replaced Fulgencio Batista’s corrupt dictatorship with communist rule that challenged the US and turned the island into a cold-war crucible.

The US had long counted on Castro’s mortality as a “biological solution” to communism in the Caribbean but, since officially succeeding his brother in 2008, Raúl has cemented his own authority while overseeing cautious economic reforms, and agreeing the momentous deal to restore diplomatic relations between Cuba and the US in late 2014, ending more than five decades of hostility.

By Raúl’s own admission, however, Fidel is irreplaceable. By force of charisma, intellect and political cunning the lawyer-turned-guerrilla embodied the revolution. Long before his passing, however, Cubans had started to move on, with increased migration to the US and an explosion of small private businesses.

His greatest legacy is free healthcare and education, which have given Cuba some of the region’s best human development statistics. But he is also responsible for the central planning blunders and stifling government controls that – along with the US embargo – have strangled the economy, leaving most Cubans scrabbling for decent food and desperate for better living standards.

The man who famously declared “history will absolve me” leaves a divided legacy. Older Cubans who remember brutal times under Batista tend to emphasise the revolution’s accomplishments. Younger Cubans are more likely to rail against gerontocracy, repression and lost opportunity. But even they refer to Castro by the more intimate name of Fidel.

Since largely vanishing from public view he has been a spectral presence, occasionally surfacing in what became a trademark tracksuit, to urge faith in the revolution. It was a long goodbye which accustomed Cubans to his mortality.

Exiles in Florida, the heart of the diaspora which fled communist rule, are expected to celebrate. Previous false reports of Castro’s death triggered cavalcades of cheering, flag-waving revellers.

Latin America’s leftist leaders, in contrast, will mourn the passing of a figure who was perceived less as a communist and more as a nationalist symbol of regional pride and defiance against the gringo superpower. The funeral is expected to attract numerous foreign heads of state, intellectuals and artists.

ANIMALS TO HUMANS: LISTEN, LEARN & RESPECT!

by Ralph Nader

I have long wondered what the animal kingdom – mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and insects – would want to tell us humans if we and the animals had a common language?

Well, in my new Fable – Animal Envy (Seven Stories Press) – a “Human Genius” invents a digital translation application whereby animals can speak with each other across species and also speak one way to humans so they learn to listen. The response by “subhumans” was so overwhelming that the Human Genius reserved 100 hours of global TV time for the denizens of the natural world to tell their stories before mesmerized billions of humans all over the Earth.

An Elephant, Owl and Dolphin – sensing the need for some sort of production order and fair play – called themselves The Triad and convened the Great Talkout. Driven by the complexity of raising their young and surviving generation after generation, the animals, led by the wisdom of The Triad, developed a strategy born out of their keen sense of observing the human animal whom they internally called The King of Beasts.

To make their core messages palatable, they had to frame their approach during those early television hours to be seen as ingratiating and flattering to humans’ self-interest. They knew that humans had their doubts and their dissenters, but overall their long-touted “conquest of nature” as a measure of their “progress” reflected a level of ongoing aggressive behavior, marked by arrogance and violence that had no equal on Earth.

The Triad suggested that all species commence with flattery of humans to get them to open their minds. Animals could better show how useful the animal kingdom is to humans once accepted and understood them.

Animals were not going to rely on appeals to justice and fairness. They wanted to speak directly from their experience and conditions of their existence.

It turned out that different species made different demands on The Triad’s program management. There were the dire urgencies of species facing severe habitant loss and extinction. The Triadgave them special emergency access to the television stage. There were species who disagreed on using flattery and went right into their priorities. Other species said the heck with mutual self-interest – look what humans can learn from our far superior physical capabilities such as our sense of sound, smell and sight – from dogs to owls to octopi – and their unique relation to their biological environments. Think of beavers, bees, spiders, beetles and the critical earthworm.

Many species wanted to convey to humans that they were far more than genetically determined organisms – called instinct. “Multiple intelligences” came into play soon after birth. They were forms of feedback – stimuli, fears, hunger, heat, cold, weather eruptions and intricate mating and social rituals. In short, animals learn and adapt.

To the massive human audience, the Great Talkout was beyond fascinating. All ages were glued to the screen. The sheer variety and recounting of different species were startlingly new to all but animal scientists, ecologists and other specialists. After all, animals were stereotyped simplistically over the centuries.

We knew, for example, that elephants had extraordinary memory, but we did not know they had compassion, empathy, courage, sorrow, even grief. And so have other species beyond just mammals.

The book describes a revolt of the Insects who felt their massive numbers, variety, beauty and impact on humans (eg. mosquitos) deserved more airtime. They organized a challenging parade to impress The Triad of their importance to the environment and their ability to command the attention of humans who feared them. They got their time on stage.

Some animals spoke directly to The Triad to convey warnings to humans. Particularly vociferous were the Asian beetles known as emerald ash borers who have destroyed tens of millions of urban and rural ash trees. Foresters estimate losses so far of about twenty-five billion dollars and much more to come.

One ash borer, speaking for all of them, declared that “We want you, oh mighty Triad, to broadcast this message: ‘Humans, know that we came from China, hitchhiking in packing materials. We’re a half-inch long with green wings and a reddish stomach. You can’t stop us from our meal. Neither Chinese wasps nor birds, like those hated woodpeckers, can stop us. They can eat a whole lot of us but we still multiply. You might be asking why I’m telling you all this. It’s because you need to be more humble, but humility can become a great asset to your survival and health.’”

Because the various species knew that humans are much “smarter” than they are, they cautioned the humans to beware of their past habit of outsmarting themselves and succumbing to the intensifying hubris that could cause ever bigger disasters and extinction on our small planet.

There are many consequential facts about the animal kingdom, including domesticated animals for food and pets, which should fascinate readers of all ages. This may be partially why Animal Envy has been praised by leaders of how humans must and should deal with other sentient beings, such as Princeton Professor, Peter Singer, environmental attorney, Eric Glitzenstein, and scholar-author Mark Bekoff.

A special comment came from singer/poet Patti Smith who described the Fable as “a tale of two kingdoms, mirroring that reflective insight of animals and closing eyes of human kind. Animal Envy is a clarion call!”

Authors, naturally, want their books to be read. Such reactions are indeed welcome.

(Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!)

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “My aunt Vicky.”

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

A while back ago, I had an atrial fibrillation episode which went away on its own. In the aftermath they had me do an echogram which revealed a pulmonary hypertension issue – far more serious. (That’s what happens when you go to the doctor; they open pandora’s box and find all sorts of shit which creates anxiety and depression which is harder than the actual physical issues.) Anyway, they wanted to give me a blood thinner for the AFIB to prevent stroke but after reading it was basically ‘rat poison’ I decided not to take it…and I also decided not to do a right heart catheterization for the pulmonary hypertension issue which is the gold standard in terms of a final definitive diagnosis. So I’m just taking my chances as it were which is ironic considering all my concern over health care insurance…I fucking hate doctors and hospitals because they're very bad for my mental health.

AN INSPECTOR CALLS continues this weekend!

A young woman has committed suicide.  But who is to blame?

AN INSPECTOR CALLS, directed by Dan Kozloff, plays this Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm.

Arrive early and enjoy one of Jim's signature cocktails, or a cup of Thanksgiving coffee and a cookie from Mendocino Cookie Company!

To purchase tickets, please go to our website <http://mendocinotheatre.org/>,

or phone 707-937-4477.

Find out more about the production here <https://youtu.be/hkhNCCT0OUE>.

OFF COLOR STORIES (For Harv)

by Louis S. Bedrock

A young engineering student from India is looking for a place to sit down and eat his lunch in the very crowded cafeteria of Community College of New York (CCNY).

He finally locates a table occupied by only one person, a very attractive coed who is sipping a coke while she reads a book and takes notes.

“Excuse me miss,” he says, “might I share the table with you?”

“What! You are asking me to go to bed with you?” the young woman shouts.

Other students in the area turn their heads to see what's going on.

“No, no, absolutely not,” stammers the engineering student, “I just want to sit down.”

“You're offering me money to have sex with you?  How dare you!” responds the woman.

With half the people in the cafeteria now staring at him, the engineering student retreats to the other side of the cafeteria where he finds an empty table.

Ten minutes later, the coed approaches his table and sits down.

“Look,” she whispers, “I want to apologize for embarrassing you.  I'm a psychology major and I just wanted to observe how you would react in a stressful situation.”

“Fifty dollars?!” responded the engineering student in a loud voice.

* * *

A young priest starts his first job at a small parish in Louisiana. The first man he takes a confession from says, "Bless me, father, but that guttersnipe gal Nookie Green forced me to commit adultery with her."

The second says, "Bless me, father, but I left my wife and kids 'cuz this here Nookie Green tempted me into getting drunk and waking up naked on Bourbon Street."

The third confessor says, "Father, Nookie Green is why I got this here rash on my private parts, and why my fiancée called off the wedding."

One man and boy after another confesses to being led astray into a life of drinking, whoring and sinning by a woman named Nookie Green. To hear his male flock say it, Nookie Green could be Satan's favorite daughter.

Come Sunday, the young priest is a little nervous. It's his first sermon and he's nervous. The entire congregation has turned up in their Sunday best, and the priest is happy to see the pews overflowing with humble, hard-working folks.

But just as the service is about to start, in sashays a knock-out woman bursting out of a tight satin dress. Dressed more for a bordello dance than the house of god, the woman's in purple high heels and matching purple lace gloves. Her lips are slick with red lipstick and her long legs are in vampy nylons with a garter belt poking through. Her large breasts spill out from a corset. At the sight of this outrageous vamp, the entire church goes deathly quiet: the women give her dagger glances and the men gulp, as if they've seen a ghost.

Unperturbed, the saucy woman strides confidently to the last remaining seat, which is in the first pew, directly in front of the priest. As she squeezes herself into the pew, she crosses her legs, giving the priest an uncompromising view of her most intimate undergarments. Boom, there it is, right in the priest's blushing face.

Panicked, the priest pulls the most experienced altar boy off to the side.  "Son, you know everyone in town, right?"

"Yes, father, I reckon I do."

The priest points at the woman in the hooker's attire seated in the front row. "Tell me, then, is that Nookie Green?"

The altar boy studies the woman for a moment, then says: "No, Father, I think it's just the color of the light coming through the stained glass window."

IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE!

No gun purchases for you if you smoke pot

Feds spell it out: No gun for you if you fire up in a pot-legal state

THE COLORADO INDEPENDENT November 24, 2016 - In Colorado, can you own a gun if you use marijuana? The feds say no. State law is silent. And updated language from the federal department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on its gun-transaction paperwork has people once again talking about the conflict between Colorado law and federal law. This week, the ATF said it will issue a new form that gun buyers must fill out when purchasing a firearm.

COMMENTARY:

Wanna Bet How Quickly That Gun/Pot Law Will Be Changed?

Talk about the pot calling the (federal) kettle black.  The dark side of the ATF, compelled to follow federal law that still considers marijuana illegal despite over half of the United States which have declared maryjane legal in some form, including Washington, DC., is going to find itself alone and in a quandary when tons of 4473 forms - the paperwork required to run a background check on anyone purchasing a gun - come back with more 'no' boxes checked than 'yes' boxes. Do the former and you're an instant criminal.

WISCONSIN WILL RECOUNT BALLOTS after Green Party's Jill Stein raises more than $5m to challenge Trump win following claim hackers manipulated election result

Wisconsin will recount its presidential election votes after coming under pressure from trounced Green Party candidate Jill Stein on Friday.

The state's elections commission announced its plan to start recounting ballots 'late next week' after receiving a petition from Stein.

Stein has raised more than $5 million over the past two days for recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania amid claims the election result had been tampered with.

A recount in Wisconsin will do little for her own chances in the state despite her ongoing crusade.

Stein won only 1 percent of the vote compared to Donald Trump's 47 and Hillary Clinton's 46 on November 8.

She is however insisting on a recount claiming ballot counting machines used in the three states were susceptible to cyber attack and cannot be trusted.

In a statement on Friday, the Wisconsin Elections Commission said it would begin recounting once it received full payment from Stein's campaign.

'The Wisconsin Elections Commission today received two recount petitions from the Jill Stein for President Campaign and from Rocky Roque De La Fuente.

'The Commission is preparing to move forward with a statewide recount of votes for President of the United States, as requested by these candidates,' Administrator Michael Haas said.

De La Fuente trailed behind Stein in Wisconsin, winning just 0.1 percent of the vote.

Wisconsin's elections commission is the first to respond to growing calls for a recount.

Earlier this week Stein said she would need as much as $7million to ensure recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan too.

Stein claims it vote counting machines used in the three states on November 8 were susceptible to cyber attack and should therefore be discounted.

'To give you a sense of the problem, the voting machines used in Wisconsin were banned in California after they were shown to be highly vulnerable to hacking and malicious programming due to lacking security features,' she said in her fundraising appeal.

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway criticized those who were calling for a recount earlier Thursday, writing on Twitter: 'Look who "can't accept the election results."'

She then linked to an article about Clinton supporters calling for a recount.

On her website, Stein has positioned the fundraiser as 'an effort to ensure the integrity of our elections' after experts 'independently identified Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as states where "statistical anomalies" raised concerns.'

'Our effort to recount votes in those states is not intended to help Hillary Clinton,' she said.

The recount may indeed help Clinton, however - if, as experts suggest could be the case, she has been the victim of a cyber-attack on electronic polling stations.

According to New York, the group - which includes computer security and voting law experts - says Clinton performed 7 per cent worse in those Wisconsin counties in which voters input their choice directly into electronic voting machines.

In the other counties, where Clinton did better, voters have a paper ballot that is counted using an optical scanner or (in small numbers, to ensure accuracy) by hand.

That, they say, suggests the electronic voting machines could have been hacked to filter out Clinton votes - something that can't be done when scanning paper ballots.

Their calculations say that proposed hack could have robbed Clinton of 30,000 votes in the state. She lost Wisconsin to Trump by 27,000.

They believe that Pennsylvania and Michigan are two other key states that could theoretically have been affected. If Clinton claimed all three in a recount, she would win the Electoral College.

The scientists don't have direct evidence of a hack, they say - if it exists, it would only come if Clinton demands an investigation and recount - but DNC emails were plundered by hackers in the run-up to the election.

Clinton campaign chair John Podesta also had his email account hacked and its contents leaked.

And in August, both Illinois and Arizona election records were breached in a cyber-attack, according to the FBI and state agencies.

No suspects have been named in this potential voting hack, but Russia was fingered as a culprit in all of the attacks by US officials.

The experts include J Alex Halderman, director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society.

In an article for Medium, Halderman admits that Clinton's shock defeats in the states - which went against polling predictions - were 'probably' the fault of the polls being 'systematically wrong' rather than hacked.

But, he said, neither explanation was 'overwhelmingly more likely than the other,' and so it was imperative for 'physical evidence' to be examined.

On November 17, his group contacted Clinton campaign chair John Podesta and general counsel Marc Elias to present them with their findings and push for a recount and investigation, according to New York magazine.

But the White House is reportedly leaning on Clinton not to demand the recount, as it wants to focus on smoothing the transition from the Obama administration to Trump's new Cabinet.

However, if Stein gets her way, neither Clinton nor the White House will have a choice.

And Clinton's success in the popular vote may prove more of an impetus to push out the boat anyway.

David Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Report tweeted the result Wednesday, as her lead increased to 1.5 per cent of the vote.

According to the Cook Report, Clinton's ballot count is now at 64,225,863 -compared with Trump's 62,210,612.

There are still millions more votes to be counted, and it's believed that most of those will be for Clinton.

If Stein or Clinton want to push for the recounts, they'll need to move fast, however.

If they want to file a recount in Wisconsin, the deadline is Friday. In Pennsylvania they have until Monday. And in Michigan the cut-off is November 30.

Experts would also have to examine the voting machines to see if there was evidence of hacking.

BENEFIT CONCERT WITH LAURIE LEWIS AND TOM ROZUM at Community Center of Mendocino Saturday, Dec. 17 at 7:30 PM

In the spirit of bluegrass and old-time music, Grammy-award winner Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum will perform their versatile and engaging repertoire of love songs, laments, social commentary and free-wheelin' fun at The Community Center of Mendocino on Saturday, Dec 17, at 7:30 PM. The concert benefits the Mendocino Community Center’s After School Enrichment Program. Refreshments, beer and wine will be available for purchase throughout the evening. Fiddler and guitarist Laurie Lewis and mandolin player Tom Rozum are widely regarded as being among the most preeminent bluegrass and Americana artists of our time, and are well-known for their perfectly balanced harmonies. They formed a musical partnership in 1986, when Tom joined Laurie’s acclaimed band "Grant Street." Between them, they have recorded over twenty albums, as a duo and with their many talented musical friends, including their own 1995 Grammy-nominated album “The Oak and the Laurel.” Lewis earned a Grammy for “True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe.” Their latest album pays tribute to Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, two trailblazing women of bluegrass. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. They are available at Out of This World, Mendocino, Harvest Market in Fort Bragg or at www.brownpapertickets.com. Doors open at 7:00 PM. For more information call 707-937-5575 or go to www.ccmendo.org.

Submitted by Annemarie Weibel, Albion

MEET THE WHITE NATIONALIST TRYING TO RIDE THE TRUMP TRAIN TO LASTING POWER.

Alt-right architect Richard Spencer aims to make racism cool again.

motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/richard-spencer-trump-alt-right-white-nationalist

TRUMP'S FINANCIAL THREAT TO SAN FRANCISCO

The Trump administration threatens to punish sanctuary cities by cutting the money they get from the federal government.

The Chronicle has reported this amount as around $1 billion.

From this Examiner story, we learn that it's more than $1 billion:

Citing the Controller’s Office, Supervisor Aaron Peskin said that San Francisco directly receives $478 million a year from the federal government and another $915 million annually from the state — much of which is federal money. That does not include federal funds for major transportation projects like the Central Subway from Market Street to Chinatown, Peskin said.

When you look at this from the Controller's office, you see where Peskin got the $478 million and where the city apparently gets more than $500 million from the state in "pass-through" money. When I asked about the Chronicle's $1 billion number, the Controller's office replied:

The Chronicle story likely includes federal revenues passed through the state (e.g. TANF, food stamps, etc.); whereas the numbers provided previously are strictly federal revenues sent directly to the City. We are in the process of breaking out these pass-throughs and can provide you with this information when it is available if you desire.

With a budget of $9 billion, a billion dollar cut would be a major financial crisis for the city.

The Feds are paying most of the cost of the Central Subway project and the $26 million Masonic Avenue bike project.

(Rob Anderson. Courtesy, District5Diary)